The first Five Nights At Freddy’s was released rather recently — and yet already, the series has a sequel. Better yet, the sequel is tearing up the Top Sellers chart on Steam.
The game’s popularity made me curious, and so I tried it out for the first time last night. As much as I’m intrigued by the premise — you play as a security guard working nights at a f**ked up version of Chuck-E-Cheese — I’m not much for scary games. I ended up not playing after only twenty minutes, and judging from the reviews the game has on Steam, I’m not the only one. Funnily enough, people are so freaked out by this game, they often have less than an hour’s worth of play time on record. So, you know the whole “this game is scary” thing is legit.
Here’s some of what people have to say about Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 on Steam:
I’d say all of this is on-point, though I’m conflicted on whether or not I actually liked what I played. I can confirm the game is scary, because jump scares are cheap like that. If you don’t play the game right, an animatronic will totally come into your office and jump on you. But the core of the game — switching between cameras to see if something has changed, sometimes putting on a mask — is kind of, I don’t know, boring. Clever but disappointing.
At the same time, there’s something about this game that strikes a chord too. Lots of us remember how “cool kids” would have birthday parties at places like Chuck-E-Cheese. This game makes us take a look at that sort of thing in a different light — what if this popular sort of locale wasn’t what it seems? We know there is potency behind the idea that something made for children is actually evil. Add the graphics — which make the game look like it was released in 2000 — and you get some rather uncanny and unsettling animatronics.
It’s no wonder that the game is selling so well, especially given that it’s also become a popular game for high-profile YouTubers to play. As we know, YouTubers can work wonders for a game’s popularity, and people love watching gamers freak out on camera. Plus, as games like Slender and P.T. prove, horror games have a knack for going viral. Though I will note that even people like PewdiePie feel sceptical about why Five Nights is so popular — he calls it “YouTube views cashgrab 2014.”
Still, the game feels like it’s everywhere, which is why people like me will try it even if they know they hate horror games. The developers must be doing something right.
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9 responses to “Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, As Told By Steam Reviews”
I played about an hour of the first one and got bored…
I find that a problem in weaponless jump horror, the scares are there for a while, but not much else is, and then the scares slowly diminish. Alien Isolation gets it right, you can’t kill the entity, but you care defend yourself. More games should be like that, keeps the horror and the tension real.
I agree. The first time the robots go me I thought that’s pretty cool but after that there’s no real substance to keep me going. Alien had a good mix too with the humans and working joes, was fun too once you learnt the aliens patterns to use it to kill off other humans who may be blocking your path.
lol last night I bought this for my son. He finished the first two nights. We’re sitting there after his birthday party and he’s showing me it.
“So Dad you just look through the cameras, use the torch to see they’re all there… wind up the box…”
*looks over at me* *nod my head*
“Hey where’s Balloonboy….”
He clicks his character who puts down his tablet….
“RRRRRRRRRRRARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR” as balloonboy almost leaps through the f***ing monitor.
Liam clung to me crying for 2 minutes out of fright while I was rolling on the couch laughing so goddamn hard hugging him.
Freakin’ awesome game lol.
Bahaha. Cannot wait to do something like this with my daughter. At 6 months old I don’t think she is quite ready for this.
lol thats so adorable 🙂
As soon as I heard the name PEWDYPIE, I stopped the video. I cant stand his voice.
Markiplier’s videos on this game and its prequel are my personal favourites.
Watched the game theorists video on friday night at freddies *spoilers*Uvf gurbel sbe guvf tnzr vf gung gur tnzr jnf onfrq ba gur puhpx r purrfr znffnper, va juvpu n sbezre rzcyblrr bs gur fgber xvyyrq 4 & frireryl vawhevat nabgure, uvf gurbel vf onfrq ba rivqrapr va gur sbez bs arjfcncre pyvccvatf gung ner sbhaq va gur bssvpr, va gurfr pyvccvatf vf n fgbel nobhg 5 xvqf tbvat zvffvat & ur nyfb fgngrf gung gur obqvrf bs gurfr xvqf ner va gur ebobgf gung gel gb xvyy lbh, gur sbez bs guvf rivqrapr vf gung rzcyblrrf bs guvf serqqvrf oenapu pbzcynva bs fbzrguvat qrpbzcbfvat jvguva gur ebobgf. Abj vs guvf vf gur fnzr va guvf tnzr, jvgu zber arjfcncre pyvccvatf nobhg zvffvat puvyqera, gura gur znxref bs guvf tnzr zhfg or guvaxvat nobhg n irel tbbq fgbel gb pbaarpg gur bevtvany & gur frdhry